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AND THE BUCK STOPS WHERE???
The following is my opinion on a subject that is important to all homeowners.
It becomes increasingly more evident as each day passes into the election season in Sun City Anthem, that the choke collar continues to be tightened regarding incompetent and extremely oppressive decisions being made by those in power against homeowners and those who are members of various clubs. The lame excuse is becoming rather tiresome, “that because certain decisions need the vote of the majority of homeowners, it is not feasible to go forward. Therefore, we will make decisions that the board favors”.
A major case in point, are some of the various projected solutions to the restaurant issue. To even suggest as our general manager has proclaimed publicly, that if another restaurant company or individuals is contracted to open another restaurant, clubs would be forced to use them exclusively for their events and could not have outside catering, is not only ludicrous, insane and will further disenfranchise homeowners and thousands of various club members. This goes beyond outrageous, as I have often said, we, the homeowners, each own a pro rata share of the common interest property here-not those who work for us!!! Almost all homeowners moved here to enjoy their days after raising families and most are retired. Choice within the boundaries of laws is an inherent right in this country, but sadly not in SCA.
When people decide that they want to eat specific ethnic food, they certainly would not go to a French restaurant for Italian food, nor a steak house for good Asian cuisine. If clubs will no longer be allowed to choose the type of cuisine for a particular event they have scheduled, then that right of choice goes by the wayside. I will never forget that a former board member as well as a current one, spoke out in a blatantly selfish way proclaiming that “they wanted a restaurant here because of having many meetings in Anthem Center and it is convenient”. Bear in mind that they used an automobile to get to Anthem Center and nothing would have prevented them from going down to Buckmans’s or just down the hill to other nearby restaurants to eat.
If you add up the monies wasted on previous restaurants in Anthem Center, you would have more than enough money to reconstruct that space to serve our residents in varied activities and a hefty amount left over. Let us go a step further. If the restaurant space is re-purposed, then you could sell off some or all of the expensive equipment in the kitchen as well to offset the cost.
The lame and rather tiresome response that all the decision makers are volunteers and allow them to do their respective jobs, is highly flawed. Just because someone volunteers for a position within the circle of governance, does not make them qualified to make those important decisions. We have a wealth of untapped talent residing in SCA, some who have had personal restaurant experience either as owners or chefs. THESE ARE THE PEOPLE who should be CONSULTED before ANY decision is made regarding another restaurant. They are well versed in restaurant contracts, costs, staffing and would have a much better idea of what kind of food to serve as well as adhering to homeowners’ wishes.
Finally, homeowners have one decisive weapon in their hands to prove my point. If another restaurant does go in and catering of clubs is mandatory, the homeowners and members of clubs can go elsewhere to have the type of foods and menus they want and need to be satisfied. The finally outcome would be ANOTHER FAILED RESTAURANT!!!!
When I went to the meeting Sunday (a few weeks ago), I personally found only one person who had experience regarding both restaurant experience, and business experience. While of course all the others (sorry, Carl, bless your soul), the newbies up on stage had interesting career paths, they lacked both as mentioned.
As I have said in past times, if the (new) restaurant does not come with a TRIPLE NET LEASE, forget about it. Also, while I’m thinking and writing about it, it also DEMANDS a reasonable fee for the location to do business like EVERY OTHER COMPANY ON THE PLANET EXPECTS TO PAY FOR RENT. And that includes an IRONCLAD, LOCKED IN STONE AGREEMENT.
Believe it or not, the Bella days are gone, and we have restaurants lining the streets everywhere from Eastern Ave to Bicentennial. We have a fairly successful restaurant at Revere, so if you drive, which I’m sure 99% do, what else are the board members expecting from this new restaurant? How many more do we really need?
On a similar note what can be expected from the membership when they can’t even sign a doc for the 55% expected bi-annual update.
Why should we waste OUR limited income money on an “amenity” we don’t want? We have voted in the past to NOT have a restaurant especially if we had to pay for any part of it. I don’t understand the mentality of our Manager and the BOD. This whole thing is crazy. It looks like one way or the other we are going to have to pay to solve this mess. I agree, lets sell off all of the equipment and use that money to turn the former restaurant space into meeting rooms. Then we will be done with this whole mess.
My family had rental properties for decades. We did not put one penny into the actual business. Our only responsibility was the 4 walls, roof and foundation. The tenant made all of the renovations inside THEIR BUSINESS. Why should we, the resident owners of the space, be expected to pay for a restaurants equipment and renovations?. That’s not our responsibility.
Now, as President of the Entertainment Club, I have an enormous objection to not being able to use an outside caterer for our dinner/show at the end of the year. We want to be able to have whoever we want cater our event. We are not a large club like the Women’s Club and cannot afford unaffordable meals from a caterer. We have pledged to our members to keep prices as low as possible for all of our events including the dinner/show. There is no guarantee that anyone that comes in to operate the restaurant will give the clubs a “break” on the cost of their functions. Further more, we hold a meet and greet after our shows and serve light refreshments. We do not use a caterer for these events and never know how many people will attend after the performance.
Perhaps our Manager thinks because she is paid such an enormous salary with the kind of unbelievable benefits the BOD gives her that the community has unending deep pockets. Those of us who live on a fixed income and pay for her salary and benefits know different and under no circumstances do we wish to risk our money on another restaurant that will fail and cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s my opinion and I know many people that agree with me.
Patsy
As a member of clubs that have events where food is served (like luncheons) it would be nice to have a place where caterers can warm, set up, serve food rather than out of a storage room. I feel if we aren’t going to have a restaurant (when we moved here in 2003, we thoroughly enjoyed Trumpets and used it a lot, I would add) then we need a place where catering companies can actually plate, warm, stage luncheons, etc.
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